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as being cut of the largest sizes. In 1337
the first clothing for the scholars seems to
have been found by the Prior of St. Neot's:
"Be it remembered that the Master re-
ceived from the Prior of St. Neot's for
the robes and furs of 35 scholars for the
11th year, 41l. 7s. 2d." Knives and wine
are frequently entered as being given as
presents for gaining the good will of the
great and their dependants in those days.
In 1342 the Bursar expended 18s. 2d.
given to our friends at Court." Mr. Riley
says that from the number of sollars, so-
lers, or sun-chambers (fitted with bay win-
dows probably) King's Hall was com-
monly known in Cambridge (at least
during the fourteenth century) as
"Sol-
lar's Hall; and that this is the long-
sought college which Chaucer mentions in
the Reve's Tale, as "Solere's Hall," and
of which he is supposed to have been a
member.

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St. John's College is rich in early deeds connected with the monasteries of Lillechurche (Kent), Ospringe (Kent), and Bromehall (Berks), the lands of which were granted as an endowment to the college. Among these is the original grant of King John, in the third year of his reign, of the manor of Lillechurche to the "Abbey of S. Mary of St. Sulpice, and the Prioress and Nuns, &c.;" also a bull of Alexander III., sanctioning the foundation of the priory, and a bull of Pope Mar-" for knives and pencases and inkhorns tin V. (1520), sanctioning the appropriation of the houses of Lillechurche and Bromehall to the foundation of St. John's College. There is also a Mortuary Roll, perhaps the largest known, in favour of Ampelissa, a deceased prioress of Lillechurche (temp. Edward I.), 50 or 60 feet long; it is signed by about 363 religious houses in England, setting forth that the deceased shall have the benefit of their respective suffrages from that period. It is of great value as showing the current style of writing in each religious house at the close of the thirteenth century. A brief from William, Bishop of Sabina (1247), solicits the alms of the faithful in favour of the Hospital of St. John the Evangelist at Cambridge, which was unable from want of means to take in all the sick poor resorting thereto. All givers were to have forty days' remission from penance. Several books contain accounts of expenses, furniture, &c., of Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, and foundress of the college, full of items of the most interesting character. One of these sets forth the contents of her wardrobe at Hatfield (temp. Henry VIII.); another is an inventory of all the furniture at Hatfield. The inventory of her "chapel stuff" at Coleweston is very curious. There is a paper volume also, containing a detailed statement of the accounts of the executors of Lady Margaret to 1511, a document of considerable interest.

Queens' College, the Registry of the University, and St. Peter's College, contain account books and papers of great interest. In the Registry are original letters, of high historical value, of the times of Elizabeth and James. Mr. Riley prints an interesting Computus or Bursar's Roll of St. Peter's College, 1388-9, which throws great light upon the requirements and usages of scholastic life at that period.

Trinity College possesses, besides fine charters, Bursars' Books, containing curious entries. Turf was the principal fuel, and "Ely turfs" were considered the best,

The documents and papers at Westminster Abbey are of great value and interest. Mr. Burtt has for some time been engaged in arranging and examining them, and it is hoped that some may be printed. We note one or two curious items:- Letter of Maud de Clare, Countess of Gloucester and Hertford, to the Prior and Convent of Westminster, hoping they will not take in ill part the long stay which the friar Dan Henry is making with her. To let him leave her with the relic which they had allowed her to have for so long before she was better than at present would be a great discomfort to her. Inventory of the jewels and precious stones belonging to the shrine of Edward the Confessor, and others belonging to the Monastery of Westminster, taken away and borrowed by the king for the purpose of raising money thereon, and promised to be returned within a year from Michaelmas (51 Henry III.). A list of precious stones, apparently supplied by Roger, a goldsmith of Westminster, for a golden image (temp. Edward I.). Grant by King Richard II. to the Abbot &c. of Westminster, of a certain ring with a precious ruby inserted therein, for the shrine of the Confessor, with the condition that he might use the said ring when in England; but that it was to be placed on the shrine when the king went abroad, and to be used for the coronation of the king's successors.

In the collection of the Dean and Chapter of York is the Oath Book, or Text of the Gospels in Latin, a quarto volume written on vellum at a date prior to the Norman Conquest, on which the Canonз

of the Cathedral made oath from early | University of Edinburgh is the Protest times. This exquisitely written volume, by the nobles of Bohemia and Moravia, Mr. Riley says, is of inestimable value. It addressed to the Council of Constance on has additions to it as to relics in the thirteenth century, a list of relics in the church of Sherburn, in Saxon, being added. There are also measures of land in Saxon, and part of a homily of Wulstan in the same language.

From Dr. Stuart's Reports on the collections in Scotland we find that valuable materials for history remain comparatively unnoticed. The Duke of Hamilton's collection at Hamilton Palace contains historical papers of great value. Among them are twelve volumes of original letters and State Papers on affairs betwixt Scotland and England in the time of James V. and his daughter, Queen Mary. They probably belonged to the English Privy Council, then established at York. The documents at Gordon Castle, the seat of the Duke of Richmond, consists of a valuable series of the charters of the numerous lands and baronies of which the family became possessed, and a most imposing collection of bonds of manrent friendship, and alliance, by the leading families of the north of Scotland, from 1444 to 1670, testifying, as Dr. Stuart observes, the enormous following which could be relied on by the head of the Gordons. There is also a collection of letters of considerable political importance addressed to the Duke of Richmond by different correspondents in 1744, 1745, and 1746. The Earl of Dalhousie, at Brechin Castle, has a fine manuscript of Fordun's Chronicle, with Bower's continuation, which Dr. Stuart says it would be very desirable to collate with the MSS. used by Hearne and with those in the Libraries of the Advocates and the University of Edinburgh, and in the British Museum. This fine copy is distinguished from others by illuminated initial letters. It is of the date circa 1480.* The late Bishop Kyle's MSS. at Buckie contain seventy-two original letters of Queen Mary of Scotland, addressed for the most part to James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, and an immense collection of letters and papers connected with the ecclesiastical history of Scotland from 1597. A MS. History of the Scottish College at Paris, in the library of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Edinburgh, contains one of the earliest and most authentic portraits of Mary Queen of Scots, executed circa 1565, in Indian ink. In the library of the

Mr. W. F. Skene is preparing an essay upon the

various copies of Fordun which have come under

his observation.

September 2, 1415, in reference to the burning of John Hu s and Jerome of Prague. This is authenticated by one hundred signatures and as many seals, and was bequeathed to the University in 1657 by Dr. William Guild, of King's College, Aberdeen. There are a number of important Scottish State Papers in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.

We now turn to the Second Report, which equals, if not exceeds, the first in interest and importance, and will first examine the collections to note the monastic treasures contained in them. Among the MSS. of the Right Hon. Countess Cowper, at Wrest Park, Beds, is a fine folio fourteenth-century Cartulary of Crowland Abbey, made originally in the reign of Edward III.; a register or breviary of the charters granted to the Abbey of St. John Baptist, Colchester (thirteenth century), and the Leger Book of the same abbey (fifteenth century). A number of charters and ancient documents from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, connected with the Monastery of Tywardreth, Cornwall, are in Lord Arundell of Wardour's collection. Lord Leigh has a very valuable Leger Book of the Monastery of Stoneley-in-Arden (fourteenth century), compiled by Thomas Pype (or Thomas de Weston), the eighteenth abbot. The charter chests of the family of Neville, of Holt, Leicester, contain twenty ancient grants to the Monastery of Bradeley. A pedigree of the Carringtons of the North shows that Sir John Carrington (a partisan of Richard II.), fearing Henry IV., fled abroad, and assumed the name of Smyth. After some time he returned and made himself known to the Abbot of St. Osyth, in Essex, and lived with him there.

Of books, Colonel Carew's (of Crowcombe Court) MS. copy of the Evangelia according to St. Jerome, a splendid manuscript of the tenth century, is especially deserving of notice. Mr. T. Duffus Hardy gives a careful analysis of its contents. Lady Cowper has a fine folio volume of Higden's Polycronicon, in Latin (given by John Clyate to Windsor Herald, who bequeathed it to J. Wrythes, Garter Kingat-Arms), and a fifteenth century folio volume, containing an English metrical version of the Questions of Sydrac. Besides a fifteenth century Tretyse of the Seven Poyntes of Trewe Love, Mr. Ormsby Gore has a letter book of Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, containing copies of

letters "by and to different Popes to and by various Kings of England and other countries," of great interest. This volume has been entrusted to Mr. Horwood for careful examination.

Some curious details respecting an English nunnery in the fifteenth century are given from three ancient rolls of the Nunnery of St. Radegund, in Jesus College, Cambridge. The following is a translation of the original of the first of these:

nes Banaster, Treasurer and Receiver of the Houses there of the Blessed Mary and St. Radegunda, from the Eve of St. Michael the Archangel, in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of King Henry the Sixth (1449), to the Eve of St. Michael the Archangel thence next ensuing in the twenty-ninth year of the same King, being for one year." Roger Rede, of Hyntone, was paid 3s. 5d. for weaving 77 ells of cloth for the livery of the servants. “ Also, for eight warpes (parcels of four) of fish called lyng, bought of John Antylle, at Ely Fair, at 8d. the warpe, making 5s. 4d.; with six warpes of codde at 61-2d. the warpe. For 1 quarter and 21-2 bus. of oatmeal bought this year for the kitchen at 8d. the bushel, 7s. For 32 pullets bought at Stantum, 2s, 81. For 4 quarters of pease bought of John Presote, 11s. For a lamb bought of the clerk of St. Antony's, 6d. For two sheep bought of Master John Herrysone, chaplain, 12d., and no more, the rest being forgiven to the Society. For a horse bought at the Fair of St. John the Baptist, 9s. 6d. For another horse bought of Richard Baker, of Bumstede, 4s. For a sheep bought

A letter written by William de Wykeham is kept in the Warden's Lodge, New" Cambridge. The Account of Dame AgCollege, Oxford. It is the only specimen of the handwriting of the illustrious man (except his signature) existing, and is supposed to refer to the ransom of the Duke of Bourbon, who had been taken prisoner at the battle of Poitiers in 1356. It begins: "Tres chier Sire-Veuilliez savoir que yci Dymenge je envoiay pur Canal;" and is addressed "To my very dear John Lord of Cobeliame." The following is a translation: "Very dear Sir-Be pleased to know that this Sunday I sent for Canal, the vadlet of Simon Bachel, who came to me at Shene, where I spoke to him of the exchange of which you know; and this Monday he sent a vadlet to Paris, and charged him to be there with all the haste he may for the same reason. And the said Symon or Bartholomew Spifanie, his father, will send to their companions, at whatever place the Pope shall be, to have you speedily paid the sum of which it was spoken between us; so that there may be no need for you to go or send to Paris for this reason. For assuredly you will find the said payment before you in the hands of the said companions, at whatever place the Pope shall be found. Very dear Sir, may the Holy Spirit keep you in health. Written at Shene, in great haste, this Monday, upon my setting out. WILLAM DE WYKEHAME."

of Richard Sexteyne, 6d. For the making and mending of horse-collars by one man hired for five days, 22d. (or 4 1-2d. a day). . . . Moneys paid to our lady the Prioress and the whole convent, for their clothing this year, in part payment of 66s. 8d., 43s. 8d., and no more." Under the head of Hospitium, or Guests' Hall, we have the large sum of 11. 7s. 4d., for bread, ale, beef, mutton, lamb, veal, pork, hens, chickens, fish, &c., to be Wyclif was born in the same year (1324). eaten in that place, so that the nunnery Viscount Dillon, of Dychley, has a very did not neglect the duties of hospitality. valuable volume, written at the end of the A cow, bought for the Guests' Hall. cost fourteenth century, containing Wyclif's 6s. 8d. Under the head of Data, or Prestranslation of the Gospels of SS. Matthew ents, we find 12d. entered "for a crane and Mark, with commentaries in English. (grure) bought and given to the ChancelThis copy has passages from Grostête on lor of the University of the town of Camthe abuses of the papal system. Lord bridge, for his friendship in divers matters Dillon has also a small folio, circa 1400, of of our lady, the same being to the advanWyclif's translation of the New Testament. tage of the Community." Among MiscelSome of the rolls of Queen's College, Ox-laneous Payments we select, "For the salford, have been quoted by the late Pro-ary of Robert Palmere, confessor of the fessor Shirley to prove the residence of ladies this year, as in divers preceding John Wyclif in various years between 1363 years, 6s. 8d. For the salary of Master and 1380; but the question cannot be set- John Herrysone, chaplain, celebrating tled without further particulars. mass for the ladies the whole time of

A deed in the charter chests of the family of Neville of Holt, dated July 8, 16 Richard II., establishes a new fact in the life of the great founder of New College, viz. that he made a considerable settlement of | property in Oxfordshire on some of his kindred.

this account, 100s.... For the pay of in hall, circa 1397: "On Saturday a Bedel John Euersdone, hired to plough the whole (of the University) came to dine with the time of account, 26s. 6d. Also, for the Fellows. On the same day came the farmpay of John Wyllamessone, shepherd, er of Radclyve (Radcliffe, Bucks), the baiwith 8d., the price of one pair of boots liff and miller of Tynchwyke (Tingewick, this year, 20s. 8d. For the pay of Joanna Bucks), the reeves of Awltone (now Alton Graungyer, one of the handmaids of our Barnes, Wilts), and Sterte (Wilts), to dine lady (the Prioress), including 3s. 4d. given with the Fellows."— P. 6.` "On Thursto her as a reward for provisional duties, day came three carpenters to dine with the 13s. 4d." The receipts of the house, ac- Fellows. On Friday came the farmer of cording to this roll, amounted to 80l. Os. Hekfield to dine with the Fellows, his ser22 1-4d.; but according to the third roll, vant dining with the servants."- P. 25. thirty years later in date, these had fallen" On Sunday W. Broun, the stonemason, to 31. 15s. 8 1-2d.

I came to dine with the Fellows, and anothIn a list of the Masters of Gonville and er labourer to dine with the servants. On Caius College, Cambridge, is this passage the same day came to dine with the Fel(trans.): "Be it remembered that A.D. lows a certain vadlet of Master Nicholas 1465 died Edmond Shy.reff after the Feast Wykham, and Thomas Glasier (the glaof St. Michael; against whom at the time zier), came to supper with the Fellows. of his election as Warden no slight oppo- On Thursday came a poor priest of Essex sition was formerly made by N. Bothe, af- (Yssexia) to supper with the Fellows. terwards Bishop of Exeter, who factiously On the same day came a charcoal burner attempted to usurp to himself the office of (carbonarius) to dinner." Subsequent enWarden. But the ambition of this man tries record that a brickmaker, a tiler, a was far from prevailing; although in the skinner, a Hermit, two women of "Hornemeantime he most disgracefully made chirche," and a woman who fitted the albs away with the best cup and the best piece and the boardcloths, dined with the Felof silver plate, together with as much lows on different occasions. At the end of money as he could scrape together. As a list of jewels belonging to the same colto what was afterwards restored when he lege is this memorandum, in Latin, "Be it had reached a fatter preferment we are in remembered that A.D. 1456, on the day of ignorance." Mr. Riley points out that St. Cecilia the Virgin and Martyr (Nov. the Christian name of Booth, Bishop of 22), the Venerable Father, Master Thomas Exeter, was John, and he attained to that Gascoigne, of the diocese of York, Profesdignity in 1475, seven years before Shy-sor of Holy Theology, gave to this college reff's election to the Wardenship.

The charters of Exeter College, Oxford, show that the foundation absorbed Bedford, Castle, Cheker, Culverd, Fragon, Godstowe, Hambury, Peter, Scheld, Scot, and St. Stephen Halls.

Mr. Riley's description of the documents of New College, Oxford, makes us hope that some of them will be carefully examined. He says that the Liber Senescalli Coquina (or Book of the Steward of the Kitchen), beginning circa 1386, contains the names of all the members of the College who dined in hall each day, who dined with them, and "in the margin there are a vast number of notes, many very indistinct, and others, though distinct, very minutely written; all which, no doubt, would well repay a thorough examination, as throwing light not only on the earliest history of the college, but at least to some extent upon the manners and usages of the day." From one of the books called Liber Senescalli Aula (Book of the Hall Steward), an office taken by the Fellows in turns, we take some entries, which show the variety in the status of persons dining

of the Blessed Mary of Winton, in Oxford, to the honour of God and of his glorious Mother Mary, and of all saints, the relics underwritten: - A portion of the sepulchre of God; of the place where Christ sweat blood; of the place where the Blessed Mary breathed forth her spirit; of the flesh of St. Paul; a bone of the Blessed Mary Magdalene; a bone of St. Vincent the Martyr; a bone of St. Ambrose the Doctor; two small bones of St. Brigit (Birgittæ) the Widow; a portion of the tomb of St. Gregory the Pope."

Of collections of documents which have only been partially examined, and which are likely to contain papers of more than local or family history, we may mention those of Lord Arundell of Wardour (containing 8,000 or 9,000 separate documents), Charles Berington, Esq., of Little Malvern Court, and the Ormonde muniments at Kilkenny Castle. Of the latter Mr. I. J. Gilbert says: "These archives, as yet unarranged and uncatalogued, are rich in unique original documents, and constitute an invaluable series for elucidating the history of the numerous important affairs

in which representatives of the Ormonde line were engaged from the twelfth to the fifteenth century."

Important sixteenth century MSS., mentioned in the Report, are contained in Lord Calthorpe's collection. These are known as the Yelverton MSS., formed by Robert Beale, Clerk of the Council to Queen Elizabeth, and many important papers relating to Mary Queen of Scots are contained in them. Documents relating to the same century are in the collections of Messrs. Bromley Davenport and Cottrell Dormer. A MS. found by Mr. W. H. Turner, of Turl Street, Oxford, now in the Bodleian, is an exceedingly interesting illustration of the usages of the period. It is an inventory, circa 1551, of the effects of John, Viscount Lisle, and Earl of Warwick, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, beheaded in 1553. The destination of all the articles is given; and it will surprise many to learn that the old coats were chiefly given to his sons, the old shirts were cut up to make handkerchiefs for his lordship; articles lost or stolen when staying at different houses are duly recorded; and it is quite evident that economy was by no means unstudied in this nobleman's establishment. A number of entries in the MSS. of the Corporation of Abingdon relate to payments made to players. We transcribe a few of these. 1551. Item. Geven in reward to my Lord of Wostars (Worcester's) players vis. xd. Item, geven in reward to therle of Darbes players vs. 1580. Item, paid to my Lord of Shrosbures playars vis. 1579. Item, geven in reward to the Lord Barcleys playars, at the commandment of Mr. Mayot, mayor, and by the hands of Mr. Leonell Bostock

VS.

Item, geven the tomblars that plad befor Mr. Mayor and his company in reward iiis. ixd. Item, paid to therle of Baths playars in reward vs." There are many entries of this nature, showing that the worshipful mayor and corporation of the borough were not above witnessing such dramatic representations.

We now select and arrange in chronological order the most interesting documents in the Report, relating to the great events of the seventeenth century, so as to form a series of new illustrations of the history and manners of a most eventful period.

The Camden Society are to be congratulated in having just published a selection from the valuable MSS. of the Hon. G. M. Fortescue, of Dropmore. The collection seems to have been made by John Packer, Secretary to the Duke of Buckingham,

and contains letters from Buckingham, Secretaries Lake, Calvert, Naunton, and Conway, the Earls of Suffolk, Middlesex, and Nottingham; and last, not least, letters from James I. and his daughter Elizabeth of Bohemia. More than five hundred of these letters are catalogued in the Report. Mr. Fitzmaurice points out that the most interesting is James's letter to the Commissioners for the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh. The king tells them he has read their letter, and objects to both the courses which they propose. A narrative of his proceedings not sufficient, and a public calling of him before the Council will make him too popular, and will be too much honour for him. He recommended that he should be called before those who have hitherto examined him, and charged, and after the sentence for his execution a declaration can be issued!

In the collection of Mr. Ormsby-Gore (of Brogyntyn, Salop) there is a vellum roll thirty feet long, showing "the funerall proceeding of Queen Anne from Denmark House in the Stronde to Westminster Abbey the 27 daie of May 1619," giving the order of the procession with banners, &c., beautifully coloured. Among the letters of this period in this collection is a copy, circa 1621, of one from James I. to Secretary Calvert, reproving the Commons about their assertion of their privileges. They said it was their inheritance, the monarch that it was by the grace and permission of his ancestors. Here we have the high regal ideas of the Stuarts which occasioned the downfall of their house. Mr. Fitzmaurice states that since the publication of the First Report, the immense collection of Mr. Harvey, of Ickwell Bury, Beds, of printed pamphlets, broadsides, &c., relating to the political history of the seventeenth century, has been catalogued. He says, "It is probably as complete a collection as any can be of the publications of that time relating to the current events of the day, and it is luckily also in an admirable state of preservation."

Passing on to the reign of Charles I. we find in the report of Lord Wrottesley's MSS. an evidence that Charles was not much better than his father in the sale of dignities: "London, near Essex Gate. 1632. Sir William Devereux to Sir Hugh Wrottesley. Understands that somebody had possessed him that Sir Thomas Blother, of the Privy Chamber, offered him to be a baronet for 300l., and that the King would make many for 2001. or 3001.; that the King was reserved; one offered 8007., and could not get it. Thought he had performed the

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